Legislating nature for biodiversity offsets in New South Wales,Australia

In the contemporary environmental management landscape, legislation is a principal means through which sustainable outcomes are negotiated. Yet the relations between legislation (as a social practice), nature and justice have been subjected to limited scrutiny. This paper explores these relations through consideration of a system of biodiversity offsets currently being implemented in New South Wales, Australia, following the enactment of the Threatened Species Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Act 2006 (NSW). In this paper we investigate the work this legislation does in enacting the materiality of nature in order to explore the interrelations of materiality, law and concerns for environmental and ecological justice. We argue that the act of ‘legislating nature’ is simultaneously a ‘mode of matter-ing’ (Law 2004) that in the case of biodiversity banking (BioBanking), resituates biodiversity within new meanings, spatialities, human–nature relations, and which accounts for biodiversity at a state, rather than local, scale. Utilising the work of Latour, we examine the processes of ‘translation’ required to generate abstracted ‘biodiversity values’ that can be traded and moved between locations. Examination of these processes leads to a consideration of the broad requirements of environmental and ecological justice as a theoretical and political response to BioBanking.     

Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales,Australia

Abstract

Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in what is now Sturt National Park, western New South Wales, Australia. While we are able to demonstrate and quantify relationships between high artifact visibility and erosional surfaces, and low visibility and vegetated or depositional surfaces, our findings also indicate a high degree of local variability. This variability sometimes obscures the predicted relationships. The outcome of this research leads us to question the way some sampling designs for archaeological survey are constructed.     

Progressive and reactionary rhetoric in the municipal reform debate in New South Wales,Australia

Albert Hirschman's rhetoric of reaction is a potentially powerful typology of the arguments made by both proponents and opponents of reform (1991. The rhetoric of reaction: Perversity, futility, jeopardy. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press). However, scholars have identified a number of gaps in the typology, in particular that it has struggled to explain the lines of rhetoric associated with disputed empirical evidence. This paper reviews Hirschman's typology before applying it to the contentious municipal amalgamation debates currently unfolding in New South Wales, Australia. We then examine the lines of attack open to progressives and reactionaries on the basis of empirical data. We conclude that the use of empirical data opens new lines of rhetoric for both ‘progressives’ and ‘reactionaries’ generally, but that both information costs and complexity significantly affect the timing and penetration of the arguments.     

Justice in River Management: Community Perceptions from the Hunter Valley,New South Wales,Australia

Dealing with differing and sometimes conflicting criteria for priority‐setting is an essential part of sustainable natural resource management. However, all too often, these ethical and political considerations are neglected within a planning regime based upon apparently ‘objective’ biophysical assessment techniques. Input into associated decision‐making processes is also frequently restricted to a narrow range of ‘stakes’ based upon historical and geographic circumstances. This paper reports on the findings of interviews and discussion groups in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, which aimed to canvass the diversity of perceptions of distributive and procedural justice in river rehabilitation. A range of biophysical and social criteria for setting priorities in rehabilitation work was identified. Participants also had differing ideas on the composition of decision‐making bodies and on decision‐making processes. The key implications of these findings are that sustainable river management policy needs to openly address differing conceptions of justice and that rehabilitation practice should be holistic, transdisciplinary and concerned with both outcome and process.     

Recent Storm Boulder Deposits on the Beecroft Peninsula,New South Wales,Australia

This paper documents the deposition of large boulders on the Beecroft Peninsula, New South Wales, during a one in four‐year swell event in October 1999. The size of the boulders in relation to the magnitude of the swell suggests that the boulder field at Whale Point on the Beecroft Peninsula is explicable in terms of storm swells alone.     

The Old Kinchega Homestead: Doing Household Archaeology in Outback New South Wales, Australia

The Kinchega Pastoral Station in western New South Wales, Australia, was one of the earliest and largest in the area. A study of one of the station's homestead is demonstrating how the integration and negotiation of material and documentary evidence produces information on domestic behavior in rural Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and highlights the activities of women and children in an environment whose history has been dominated by the exploits of men.     

Bodies that sweat: the affective responses of young women in Wollongong,New South Wales,Australia

I argue that people's bodily sensations of sweat – smell, touch and sight – can provide insights to the relations between subjectivity and space. I draw on feminist ideas of the body as a physiological, psychological and sociological assemblage out of which spatially situated knowledge, ethics, subjectivities and social relations are forged. Empirical evidence is drawn from self-reflexive accounts of 21 young women living in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Their narratives convey how sweat and sweatiness are integral to negotiating everyday life. First, participants' narratives illustrate the way the sweaty body-as-seen is bound up with gendered identities and self-disgust. Second, visceral experiences of the materialities of sweat and sweatiness often give rise to a heightened sense of bodily awareness, self and spatial marginalisation in the course of everyday lives. Third, participants' narratives highlight the tensions of spatial experience of sweat and sweatiness that simultaneously attract and repel bodies. Visceral experiences of sweat and sweatiness are central to better understanding of the spatiality of subjectivity.     

Hypolithic Plants from Carruthers Peak,Snowy Mountains,New South Wales,Australia

Hypolithic plants, plants growing under rocks, have been found from a number of climatically extreme, mostly arid sites from the poles to the equator, but there are limited reports from temperate zones. A brief survey in the Kosciuszko Alpine Area of New South Wales, Australia, revealed four species of moss and one liverwort growing beneath diaphanous quartz pebbles in feldmark vegetation communities. The probable restricted nature of this phenomenon and the likely impact of global warming, tourists and recreation management activities raise concerns for its conservation.     

Estimates of Historical Tree Densities in the North Lachlan River Catchment,New South Wales,Australia

Vegetation structure and composition during the pre‐ and early‐European period in Australia is often proposed as a benchmark against which to measure the effects of modern landscape management practices. However, little quantifiable information exists for that historical period. One potential source of information is the land survey record, used in this study to provide estimates of tree densities that existed during the period 1870 to 1900 in part of central New South Wales. Estimates were obtained for 23 parishes in the north Lachlan River valley, between the towns of Condobolin and Tottenham. Densities were calculated from portion corner to nearest tree data obtained from historical survey plans, using the plotless, closest individual method. Densities ranged from 6.0 to 31.4 trees per hectare for parishes with enough data points for reliable calculation. These figures would account for trees of a diameter large enough to be blazed with a survey mark. Any smaller trees would be additional and, although no quantitative data existed for this, qualitative evidence suggested that the figures obtained were more likely to be underestimates due to the presence of such small trees. The study area was predominantly covered by woodlands which varied in density across the landscape, in comparison to the modern landscape where much of the native vegetation has been cleared for agriculture. Although the tree density figures should be considered to be indicative rather than precise, they provide quantifiable historical figures for past conditions in an area where the historical record is otherwise sparse. Such information is valuable for interpreting ecological changes brought about by modern land management.     

Algae from Early and Middle Devonian limestones,tamworth belt,New South Wales,Australia

Eighteen genera of cosmopolitan marine algae are reported from Emsian and Eifelian limestones of New South Wales. Couvinianella, Paralitanaia, Perrierella, Pseudopalaeoporella and Renalcis are the most abundant taxa. Three distinctive floras are recognized: a prolific dasycladale-coccoid assemblage; a diverse udoteacean assemblage; and an undiversified udoteacean assemblage. None of these floras has a precise stratigraphic significance, although they indicate a latest Silurian-Middle Devonian age. Maslovina australense sp. nov. is described.     

Class and other cleavages: Voting behaviour in New South Wales in the 1980s

The success with which Labor and the Liberal/National coalition identified with particular categories of voters is examined within the context of successive State elections in New South Wales during the 1980s. Results indicate that class and primary vs secondary economy cleavages dominate voter behaviour, the balance between the two largely reflecting a decade of differential swings towards Labor and the coalition between metropolitan and non‐metropolitan electorates at successive elections.     

Palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment of the Jurassic Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed,Gulgong, New South Wales,Australia

BEATTIE, R.G. & AVERY, S., December 2012. Palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment of the Jurassic Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed, Gulgong, New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa 36, 451–465. ISSN 0311-5518.

The Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed has produced a significant number and variety of insect fossils, including the orders Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Plecoptera, Odonata, Neuroptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Mecoptera. Hemiptera are the most common insects. Coleoptera are both common and diverse. Both orders include terrestrial and aquatic species. The other insect orders represented are less common. Many of the insect fossils discovered were previously unknown in the Australian region during the Jurassic, and the new records extend their palaeogeographic range into southeastern Gondwana. A recent collection of insects, fish, coprolites, gastropods, bivalves, bark, leaves, fruiting bodies, burrows and other ichnofossils supports a model of a shallow-water-lake palaeoenvironment at the northern end of the deposit, grading to a shoreline palaeoenvironment towards the southern end of the deposit. The existence of a productive lake supporting a large population of fish and a diverse, aquatic/shoreline and terrestrial woodland fringe palaeoecosystem, dominated by insects and woody plants, is demonstrated. There is no evidence of tetrapods. The Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed has similarities to Type A and B Mesozoic lake deposits reported from Transbaikalia. Culicimorph pupae are numerous and may have filled a significant niche near the base of the aquatic palaeoecosystem. Other immature aquatic insects are rare. The generally articulated nature of the fossil insects is interpreted to have resulted from a sudden but low-energy burial event.     

Conodonts and tabulate corals from the Upper Ordovician Angullong Formation of central New South Wales,Australia

Zhen, Y.Y., Wang, G.X. &; Percival, I.G., August 2016. Conodonts and tabulate corals from the Upper Ordovician Angullong Formation of central New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa 41, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

The Angullong Formation is the youngest Ordovician unit exposed in the Cliefden Caves area of central New South Wales. Its maximum age is constrained by a Styracograptus uncinatus graptolite Biozone fauna at the very top of the underlying Malongulli Formation, but the few fossils previously reported from higher in the Angullong Formation are either long-ranging or poorly known. From allochthonous limestone clasts in the middle part of the formation, we document a conodont fauna comprising Aphelognathus grandis, A. solidum, Aphelognathus sp., Aphelognathus? sp., Belodina confluens, Drepanoistodus suberectus, Panderodus gracilis, Panderodus sp., Phragmodus undatus, Pseudobelodina inclinata and Pseudobelodina? sp. aff. P. obtusa, which supports correlation with the Aphelognathus grandis Biozone (late Katian) of the North American Midcontinent succession. The species concepts of Aphelognathus and Pseudobelodina are reviewed in detail. Associated corals are exclusively tabulates, dominated by agetolitids, including Agetolites angullongensis sp. nov., Heliolites orientalis, Hemiagetolites breviseptatus, Hemiagetolites sp. cf. H. spinimarginatus, Navoites sp. cf. N. circumflexa, Plasmoporella bacilliforma, P. marginata, Quepora sp. cf. Q. calamus and Sarcinula sp. Affinities of the coral fauna from the Angullong Formation are closer to faunas from northern NSW and northern Queensland than to the locally recognized Fauna III of late Eastonian age in central NSW. We propose a subdivision of Fauna III to account for this difference, with the late Katian Fauna IIIB characterized by the incoming of agetolitid corals. The currently known distribution of representatives of this group with adequate age constraints suggests that agetolitids possibly originated in North China, subsequently migrating to Tarim, South China and adjacent peri-Gondwanan terranes while also spreading eastward to northern Gondwana, where they progressively moved through eastern Australia to reach the central NSW region by the early Bolindian.

Yong Yi Zhen* (yong-yi.zhen@industry.nsw.gov.au) and Ian G. Percival (ian.percival@industry.nsw.gov.au), Geological Survey of New South Wales, W.B. Clarke Geoscience Centre, 947–953 Londonderry Road, Londonderry, NSW 2753, Australia; Guangxu Wang (gxwang@nigpas.ac.cn), State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, 39 East Beijing Road Nanjing 210008 PR China.     

Roadside Memorials: Interpreting New Deathscapes in Newcastle,New South Wales

Over recent years, roadside memorials to commemorate people killed in motor vehicle accidents have become increasingly noticeable in parts of the Australian landscape. In Newcastle, New South Wales, roadside memorials are placed for young people. The age/gender group most at risk of road death, and those most memorialised, are young men. This is linked to spatially specific constructions of masculinity which circulate within youth milieux of Newcastle. Like other memorials and monuments these ‘deathscapes’ have multiple meanings, differing between those who build, maintain and interpret them. They function as conservative memorials of youth machismo; of heroic aggression, disregard for safety and egocentrism. Roadside memorials need to be re-read as symbolic of societal flaws; of a wasteful road toll, and a testament to dominant and problematic strains of masculinity.     

Patterns and Determinants of Historical Woodland Clearing in Central‐Western New South Wales,Australia

We consider the history of woodland clearing in central western New South Wales, Australia, which has led to the present highly cleared and fragmented landscape. A combined approach is used examining available historical land‐use data and using regression analysis to relate the pattern of cleared and wooded areas in the recent landscape to environmental variables, taking into account the contagious nature of clearing. We also ask whether it would be possible to apply a simple simulation modelling approach to reconstruct a credible historical sequence of clearing in the study area. The historical data indicate that annual clearing rates have varied substantially in the study area and selective tree removal (ringbarking and thinning) has been common. These findings make it unlikely that a simple simulation approach would replicate the spatial and temporal sequence of woodland loss. Our regression results show that clearing patterns can be related to environmental variables, particularly annual rainfall and estimated pre‐European vegetation type, but that patterns are dominated by contagion.     

Studies in Urban Ecology: the First Wave of Biological Invasion by Pistacia chinensis in Armidale,New South Wales,Australia

Biological invasions by deliberately introduced organisms seriously compromise the integrity of ecosystems, but their early stages have seldom been documented, especially in urban contexts. Since the 1940s, the small Asian tree Pistacia chinensis has been widely planted in streets and gardens in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, where it makes a major contribution to the autumn colours that are exploited to promote the city. Numerous wild plants are now becoming established in and near Armidale. This ongoing biological invasion may have been accelerated by the large size of the initial (planted) population, and by the presence of efficient avian seed dispersers. It is now at the stage of the first wild generation reaching reproductive maturity. While it is probably still possible to halt the invasion, various human factors appear to make this an unlikely prospect.     

A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria,Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales,Australia

Bell, P.R., Burns, M.E. & Smith, E.T. October 2017. A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria, Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa 42, 120–124. ISSN 0311-5518.

We describe an isolated osteoderm from the Albian Griman Creek Formation where it is exposed near the town of Lightning Ridge in central-northern New South Wales, Australia. Several lines of evidence allow referral of this element to the Ankylosauria—a group that epitomises body armour and ubiquitous osteodermal coverage among dinosaurs. Despite the abundant record of fossil vertebrates from this interval, ankylosaurians have not been previously reported, although, they have been described from penecontemporaneous deposits in western Queensland and Victoria. This discovery, therefore, provides an important link between the northerly faunas (including the Griman Creek Formation) that flourished at the edge of the epeiric Eromanga Sea, with those from the sub-polar rift-valley system of Victoria during the mid-Cretaceous.

Phil R. Bell [pbell23@une.edu.au], School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale 2351, NSW, Australia; Michael E. Burns [mburns3@jsu.edu], Department of Biology, Jacksonville State University, 700 Pelham Rd N., Jacksonville, AL 36265-2138, USA; Elizabeth T. Smith [elizabethtsmith@exemail.com.au], Australian Opal Centre, Lightning Ridge 2834, NSW, Australia.     

Early Silurian (Llandovery) trilobites from the Cotton Formation,near Forbes,New South Wales,Australia

A trilobite fauna from the upper part of the Cotton Formation (late Llandovery, Spirograptus turriculatus Zone) in central west New South Wales includes the new species Raphiophorus sandfordi, Odontopleura (Sinespinaspis) markhami and Aulacopleura pogsoni. Species of Odontopleura and Aulacopleura have not previously been documented in Australasia. The association of these genera is observed in offshore biofacies in the Llandovery/Wenlock on several palaeocontinents. Affinities of the species are with congeners from Bohemia and northwestern Canada (Odontopleura, Aulacopleura) and Tarim and South China (Aulacopleura, Raphiophorus).